The Attendant in the Horror Game C20

Chapter 20

The next day, the mop ghost that had been left soaking in the bucket regained consciousness. Not that it woke on its own—Jade had grabbed it in his hands and shaken it mercilessly until it did.

Jade had figured out how to make the ghost clean. Just as the system window had explained, the ghost could not refuse his commands. Once washed thoroughly and wrung dry, he stuck it to the window, and it began to sluggishly wipe away the smudges on the glass.

“Kkieeeh…”

“Be quiet. I lost my broom because of you!”

Whenever Jade looked at the mop ghost, memories of his broom came flooding back—like the times he’d swung it and snapped thin branches, or the sense of achievement he’d felt sweeping the floor and watching his experience points rise.

“Tsk! Don’t you have any conscience? You should at least make up for it somehow!”

“Kkiieee…”

When Jade scolded it, the mop ghost sulkily began scrubbing the window again. It was slow, but compared to cleaning everything alone, it wasn’t too bad.

And there was a hidden advantage—the mop ghost could crawl along walls and even float midair. It could jump up to reach high spots that Jade’s hands couldn’t touch.

Of course, even with the ghost’s help, Jade’s workload didn’t decrease much. There was still endless cleaning to do.

But what weighed on him most was one urgent task—finding a new personal item.

He tried tying the mop ghost to a stick to make a makeshift broom, and even bound together twigs to mimic one, but the system remained unresponsive. His crude ideas weren’t enough to fool it.

After several days of failed attempts, Jade eventually gave up. Instead, he channeled his grief over the lost broom into cooking.

Ever since he’d discovered dried corn and starch while taking care of Ian, Jade had begun exploring hidden spots around the villa, and found a few more supplies—some food and condiments. The discovery of jam and dried fruits was particularly thrilling.

Thanks to those finds, he could prepare a new dish today: a pie spread with strawberry jam and topped with dried berries. It was a little dry without butter or milk, but still decent. After eating mushrooms for weeks, even straw would’ve tasted good.

“It’s delicious.”

As expected, Ian ate it well. His tone was flat, but hearing the word “delicious” at all was reward enough.

His white, chubby cheeks puffed as he chewed, looking so adorable that Jade had to fight the urge to pinch—or bite—them. His body was thin from not eating enough, yet somehow his cheeks were still perfectly round.

“Myang!”

Soondol ate just as enthusiastically. After finishing his own portion, he tried to steal Ian’s and received a light flick to the forehead in return. Jade then had to spend a good while calming down the ensuing scuffle between the two.

After the meal, Jade ground black pepper into a fine powder. The discovery of both salt and pepper was nothing short of a Eureka moment. Finally, grilled mushrooms wouldn’t be so bland.

And so, with mushrooms, corn, flour, and dried fruit, the three of them endured the northern winter together.

Two months had passed since Jade had fallen into the villa, and early spring had finally arrived in the Ellovan Forest.

Being in the northern frontier, the weather still felt like winter, even in spring. Snow lingered in patches around the villa and forest.

Still, it was far better than the dark, sunless winter. Now, sunlight reached the courtyard more easily, creating warm spots where snow had melted and the soil peeked through.

And in that time, Ian had grown remarkably. It was unbelievable—he’d shot up ten centimeters in just two months. Then again, given his age, perhaps it made sense.

Twelve years old.

It had been two weeks after coming to the villa when Jade finally learned Ian’s age. He’d assumed Ian was around ten, so hearing he was twelve had shocked him.

From that day on, Jade became even more passionate about cooking. He felt it was his responsibility to feed Ian well so the boy could grow properly.

After all, there wasn’t much else to do here besides cleaning and cooking. Maybe his efforts had paid off—whenever Jade turned around, Ian seemed to have grown taller.

But while Ian was growing, Jade also experienced a few changes of his own.

>> EXP <<
Skill “Identify Poisonous Mushrooms” — Level 2 achieved.
>> Description <<
Level 2: Can now pinpoint the exact locations of mushrooms.

After harvesting 102 mushrooms, he finally leveled up his skill.

Before, even when the skill indicated where mushrooms were, the area was too broad to be useful. But now, it precisely marked their positions, making for quick finds.

According to the system, if he reached Level 3, he could even create a Mushroom Encyclopedia. Jade had no idea what good that would do—but still, it sounded cool.

And then there was one more piece of good news: upon leveling up, Jade received a new skill. It was his first in two months, and he couldn’t help but feel excited.

Lv. 1 — “Root Vegetables, Here I Come!” skill unlocked.

“Root vegetables!”

Jade cheered with genuine joy. What a wonderful name for a skill.

For the past two months, he had been surviving on whatever hidden ingredients he could find. But with only dried fruit, corn, flour, strawberry jam, and mushrooms, the menu had its limits.

Still, he had poured all his culinary creativity into those few ingredients, making the most of every bit.

Soondol sometimes whined about the food, but a spoonful of strawberry jam instantly cured him. Ian, on the other hand, ate anything Jade made without complaint, which encouraged him even more.

Thanks to that, Jade had grown bold with his cooking experiments. The dish that received the best reaction so far was his corn-and-mushroom stew—it was perfect on cold days by the fireplace. Yet, no matter how he cooked them, mushrooms couldn’t fill the void inside him.

“Rice… I want rice. Steamed white rice with kimchi stew.”

It was rice—his Korean soul ached for it. Two months without a single grain, and he was going crazy.

He longed for spicy food too. Now he truly understood why, in fantasy stories, people sold their souls to demons. That was exactly how he felt. If someone offered him a bowl of hot rice and kimchi stew, he’d gladly hand over half his soul.

“Please… iced Americano…”

Above all, he craved iced coffee. Especially when working, the thought of a cool, bitter sip haunted him.

Before dying, just as he’d become an adult, he had started to fall in love with iced Americanos. But in this world, he hadn’t tasted even a drop.

In truth, they just needed more food—anything would help. The ingredients he’d scavenged were running low. Even rationing carefully, they were down to scraps after a month. The Linwood family, who supposedly sent supplies every month, hadn’t sent anything in two.

The biggest problem was the lack of nutrition. With no meat, there was no source of protein.

Jade could manage as an adult, but Ian worried him. If Ian had been left here for over a year, that meant he hadn’t eaten meat for that entire time.

“I guess I’ll have to hunt someday.”

He’d read that in this world, even monster meat—like goblins’—was edible. There was an old crossbow in the storeroom, too.

One day, he brought up the idea of going hunting. But Ian immediately forbade it, his refusal unusually firm. Soondol also protested, hissing and flaring his claws, and in the end, Jade had to give up on goblin meat.

So, once again, their dinner was mushrooms. After a month of cooking them in every imaginable way, even Jade was sick of the taste. He’d tried grilling, salting, peppering, frying, and shaping them into different forms, but a mushroom was still a mushroom. Soondol often clutched an empty jam jar and cried mournfully, “Myang, myang…”

“Tomorrow, it’s root vegetables!”

Jade clenched his fist in determination. What kinds of root crops lay buried under the ground? With the snow still thick, options would be limited—but anything was fine. As long as it wasn’t mushrooms.

He was so excited that he wanted to test his new skill immediately. If it hadn’t been midnight, he probably would have.

Knock, knock—

Just as he sat on the bed, thinking about winter root vegetables, there was a knock on the door.

“Young Master? You can come in.”

“…I was just going to bed.”

The door opened slowly, cautiously, and Ian peeked his face inside. Realizing what he’d forgotten, Jade immediately stood up. He’d been so caught up thinking about his new skill that he’d forgotten to visit Ian’s room.

Since the night Ian had fainted and Jade had read him a story, they had developed a bedtime routine—reading a fairy tale before sleep.

Truth be told, Jade was the one who enjoyed it most.

His parents, even at their best, had never been what anyone would call normal. Jade had never attended kindergarten, and he hadn’t read a single storybook until he entered elementary school and discovered them in the library.

Before that, his childhood had been filled with long, lonely days at home—waiting for his mother to come back, or hiding under a blanket when his drunken father returned.

Maybe that was why reading fairy tales as an adult felt so strangely comforting, so fun.